Abstract:
Extending the author’s recent work (2007) this paper
advances the argument that, in significant ways, designers
construct the problems they seek to solve. While it is
generally taken as read that design problems are presented to
designers by external agencies (clients) and with specific
requirements (the brief), conventional understanding assumes
that it is this problem that the designer ‘solves’, and that
differences between solutions may be accounted for on the
basis of differences in the skills/creativity of individual
designers and/or of the plurality of different ‘satisficing’
solutions that design problems allow. While acknowledging
both of these assertions this paper argues that it is not this
‘problem-as-given’ that the designer ‘solves’ but rather a
substantially revised and personalized problem, the
‘problem-as-design-goal’, that both subsumes the original
problem and imposes upon it a range of designer preferences,
prejudices and expectations. Hence, starting from the same
brief, different designers will necessarily produce different
outcomes not merely on the basis of differential skill sets but
because, in substantial ways, they are solving different
problems. The paper briefly explores four key issues arising
from this personal projection of self onto problem:
(i) how such problematization not only determines the
nature and suitability of the ‘new’ problem but also informs
and significantly constrains the nature of acceptable solutions
and the criteria for such acceptability;
(ii) hence how, contra the received view that problem
definition and analysis precede solution attempts, problems
and solutions are co-extensive and mutually informative;
(iii) how such personal projection is often intuitive and
unconscious, hence the role of education in revealing
ideology, belief structures and theory commitment in
designers; and
(iv) how the designer’s vision is connected to and
reconciled with the client’s vision and requirements.
